Story: Illinois regulators approve SBC's bid for long distance service

The Illinois Commerce Commission has unanimously agreed that SBC Illinois can provide long distance telephone service in the state.

The ICC said the company has complied with federal requirements to open its network to competitors, a prerequisite to offering long-distance services. The commission began its investigation into SBC's compliance in 2001.

SBC must ask the Federal Communications Commission for approval to provide long-distance service in Illinois, ICC said.

ICC Chairman Ed Hurley said in a statement it was time to move on with competition in Illinois. "I have spoken to those in other states where 271 (the section of the Telecommunications Act allowing the service) has been approved and they all agree that competition is good for everybody," Hurley said.

However, AT&T is opposed to SBC's bid for long distance in the state. "The Illinois Commerce Commission's decision to endorse SBC Illinois' application to provide long-distance service could not have come at a worse time for Illinois consumers," said Mike Tye, AT&T's regional vice president of law and government affairs, in a statement. "The ICC's endorsement of SBC's application to provide long-distance service in Illinois on the heels of massive wholesale rate hike will deal a terrible blow to competition in both the local and long-distance markets and re-establish SBC as a monopoly provider of telecommunications services."

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Tye said AT&T would "vigorously oppose" SBC's application when it is filed at the FCC and will urge the FCC to reject it.

The Illinois Commerce Commission regulates utilities in Illinois.

San Antonio, Texas-based SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) provides local and long-distance telephone and Internet service in Missouri and local telephone and Internet service in Illinois.